Musings from a Minnesota girl living in Colorado.

Tag Archives: Cycling

With all of the events or ‘goings on’ in our life being documented on Midwest Mountainess the little things making up our day to day tend to fall by the wayside. Our existence is not only made up of my insecurities, day dream shopping and vacations (I wish).

Making people believe that is not what I wanted this blog to be. Do I think every single move I make every single day of my life deserves your attention, valued time AND internet documentation? Absolutely not. I’m amazed that ANYbody reads ANYthing I say.

But I do think the little things are important, both in blogging and in life. I don’t believe in sweating the small stuff as they say, but rather I think the little things could offer my readers something of a context on which to better base all the other ‘fun stuff’. And let’s face it, the day to day life is where all the big stuff really happens anyway.

So I’ve decided to start incorporating a Life Updates post here and there. Maybe quarterly, or maybe when I feel things are changing and it’s necessary. I really hope it can offer some insight (for those of you who don’t know us very well) into who we are, what we’re doing out here in the wild west, and the trajectory we hope our life to have.

Let’s do it.

I’m going to start with Marlo because if I’m being honest, she’s the most entertaining of the three of us.

Marlo continues to spend her days sleeping and her nights moonlighting as a dog. Chewing cords and shoelaces, scratching the shit out of anything she can find, running laps around our condo at surprisingly impressive speeds, meowing/howling at the edge of the bed to get our attention, staring out the window just DYING to chase some squirrels, drinking of out toilets, etc. She TRULY believes she’s a dog. Ask Ashley or Erin who house/catdog sit for us. It’s bizarre.

I can’t lie however and have to admit that she has really mellowed. There was a time I used to fantasize about leaving the window open by accident before I left for work. Don’t judge me. It was REALLY that bad. We’ve been doing test runs with letting her out on our patio (which is 2 stories up) hoping she won’t try to jump. I don’t think she will and she really loves being outside so I hope we can continue to let her out on supervised adventures.

This was circulating on Facebook awhile back and I think this is exactly what goes on in her mind so I thought I’d share.

The Dog’s Diary:

8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing!

9:30 am – A car ride! My favorite thing!

9:40 am – A walk in the park! My favorite thing!

10:30 am – Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!

12:00 pm – Milk bones! My favorite thing!

1:00 pm – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!

3:00 pm – Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!

5:00 pm – Dinner! My favorite thing!

7:00 pm – Got to play ball! My favorite thing!

8:00 pm – Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!

11:00 pm – Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

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The Cat’s Diary:

Day 983 of my captivity.

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates my capabilities. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a “good little hunter” I am. Jerks!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of “allergies.” I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage. Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow, but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released, and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird must be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now.

I WOULD apologize for all that but I do note in the ‘about me’ page that I am currently somewhat of a crazy cat lady. Girl Ryan if you’re reading, you’re not only welcome for all of that, but also, thank you for understanding me. : )

Onward.

Jon is SO busy at work he barely knows which end is up. For those of you that don’t know, my husband sells commercial real estate for a company called Marcus and Millichap and he is an absolute rock star. I have loved watching him work hard and succeed at his job and have been lucky to be by his side through the roller-coaster that a 100% commission job can bring. Things have been on an upslope for the last 6 months and I know he doesn’t like me to brag, but he has been kickin’ ass and takin’ names. I get to be proud due to the whole married thing.

Another tidbit to know about Jon is he is one of those ‘work out people’. So annoying right? He literally can not function as a normal human if he doesn’t work out and begins to turn into a toddler if he doesn’t. For my 25th birthday (the one where I cried all day) he bought me a road bike in the hopes I would turn into a similar work out freak. Hahahahahah. Ha. Silly man. What came out of it was that HE wanted a road bike, bought himself a real beauty, and has since been a bit of an road bike savant.

In a little over a month he is a participant in something called “The Triple Bypass”. No it’s not open heart surgery but as far as I’m concerned it might as flipping well be. He (in one day) will race over 120 miles on his bike over three mountain passes. He will incline over 10,000 feet over the entire day. On. A. Bike.

I’ll let that absolute HELL sink into your brain.

Yes he wants to do it and yes he’s even looking forward to it. I choose not to think about it for too long or I get sick to my stomach with nerves. If you’ve never been to the mountains, a mountain pass isn’t scary for the incline, it’s scary for the impending decline at 40+ miles per hour on a skinny little bike with barely any clothes on. 40mph down a mountain highway on a bicycle. He’s crazy. He’s also in much better shape physically and mentally than me so maybe I could take a few cues.

So he and I are cutting down on the drinking (except wine) and picking up on the healthy eating (except chocolate) and working out (except on weekdays) over the next month in order to help prepare him as best we can. Yay.

One of the positives to come out of this bike ride is it presented the perfect opportunity for me to finagle another Minnesota trip this summer!

Yes finagle is a word. It means ‘to obtain by trickery’ which is exactly what I did.

So. I reminded him how we “both” have always wanted to ride our bikes around the lake area and being the 4th of July is right before his race wouldn’t it just be the perfect time to go home and the perfect training for him? Riding his bike at sea level on flat ground rather than at altitude with 10,000 ft of incline sounds like exactly the kind of training he needs to me! : ) Anywho – we’re planning on outfitting my brand new car with a brand new bike rack and taking her on her first road trip to Minnesota. Obviously…I can’t wait.

My turn?

Deep breath. Ok.

After today I will officially and legally be a Hendrickson. I will sit at the DMV to complete the final step of changing my name on my license. So there’s that.

I got my first ever brand new car about a month ago. In my mind I still believe it’s just a rental car and that it’s not really mine. I went from not having air conditioning to having a car that talks to me. It’s pretty crazy, but I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t thrilled. Getting a new car means getting rid of my old one which has been irrationally hard on me. I haven’t done it yet. Jon nags me every single day so it’s going to happen soon. I’ll definitely write a post about it next week.

If it happens : )

I worked a shift at my job last night and made less than $30. I was there for almost 6 hours and I happen to be really good at math so I can break that down to tell you I made $5 an hour. Even though making that little is rare, it’s just not rare enough and definitely NOT worth a night away from my husband, friends and home. My point is, I’m ready to move on and I’m in the stages of doing so. It’s scary…change always kind of is for me.

Moving away from that job means moving towards another and this time it’s the one I’ve always dreamed of. I really want to give the photography thing ‘a go’. Saying that out creates a pit in my stomach that I can’t quite figure out (terror maybe) so I keep saying it quietly, and then a little louder, hoping the pit eventually goes away.

I have 4 (paid!) shoots coming up in the next few weeks and have been doing daily confidence boosting exercises so that I don’t e-mail them all to cancel because I’m a wussy scaredy cat. I spend a lot of time trying to pinpoint exactly what it is that scares the shit out of me. I think a lot of it can be contributed to a pretty universal fear…I’m scared they won’t like me.

We’ll see. I’m excited to just fricken DO IT ALREADY and stop talking about it.

Other than that our free time goes to keeping up and in touch with friends, enjoying the outstanding Denver summers, and just settling into our life. We’re really really happily married, we’re figuring out all the ‘not fun’ stuff newly married people are supposed to like insurance, taxes, checking accounts etc. We’ve begun to think about buying a house. Aren’t quite ready to think about babies.

It’s all becoming pretty grown up around here (except for Marlo) and it’s turning out to be surprisingly awesome. We love our neighborhood, Denver, and Colorado more and more every day and only become further convinced that this is where we’ll stay. I’m excited about that. I’m looking forward to what the future is going to bring us because I can honestly say I have every faith that it’s going to be really good.

There you have it – a Life Update for you. Here’s to a busy summer full of my insecurities, lots and lots of day dream shopping, and hopefully a decent amount of vacations!